Do you enjoy hosting dinner parties? Are you the go-to friend when it comes to entertaining? How about this one: do you enjoy receiving free gifts? I don’t imagine anyone answered no to that one.
Here’s a great blog to check out: Hostess {with the Mostess}. It offers daily tips on how to host the perfect party in the perfect setting. It includes everything from how to decorate your home to what you should serve. Browsing through, I found tips on how to create chic pillows at a cheap price (no one will know how cheap), how to make decadent chocolate truffles in about 15 minutes, and tips where to shop for affordable yet classy dishware, kitchen tools, gift ideas and more. These tips could also really come in handy for people hosting open houses!
And let’s not forget the best aspect. The blog gives away free stuff weekly! If that’s not a reason to regularly visit this blog, then I’ve got no more advice for you!
I recently came across a helpful article, which, though written last summer, has a lot of sound advice for buyers today. We all know buyers are leary these days, feeling a little unsure about buying something in the midst of a down economy and a real estate market that doesn’t seem to be rebounding.
If you’re a buyer, though, here’s what you should know: Buying a home right now could be one of the smartest decisions you can make. As long as you go into it prepared, heeding advice like the four steps from this article, you’ll take advantage of the market we’re in.
These are the four tips recommended:
1) Don’t expect appreciation.
2) Beware of negative cash flows.
3) Don’t overextend yourself.
4) Avoid overpaying for a property.
To learn more about these tips and the reasons behind them, visit the original article here.
A recent Mint.com article poses this question: Should you Buy a Home Right Now?
It then gives the pros and cons of making a purchase now -
PROS include (+) Current tax credits (+) Luxury of not *needing* one puts you in the drivers’ seat.
CONS include (-) Not knowing when the bottom has really come to the market (-) Possible decreased values.
I tend to lean towards the PROs right now, mainly because I see this as a great time to enter the market and take advantage of what’s been a discouraging situation for a lot of people. If you’re selling, you know it’s tough out there; but if you’re buying, you know there are deals to be had.
What do you think?
I really enjoyed this recent post over at the Buy Owner Blog, which details the results of overpricing a property.
I mean, we all know that pricing a home too high can leave it on the market longer. But have you also considered that overpricing your home can make your neighbor’s sell faster? It’s true! When your home is listed for $10K higher than the competition, particularly if it doesn’t offer the same amenities, you can be sure to be passed over.
Read the rest of the article here.
A few weeks ago, I came across a great article at FrontDoor.com, entitled They’re Just Not That into Your House. It made me laugh, partly because I’d seen the movie with some girlfriends a few weeks ago and had had similar thoughts myself but also because the writer explains the parallels so well.
I’ve often said job-hunting is like first-dating. Well, so is home-selling. Every potential buyer, every attempt to woo them—it can feel like continual rejection or, worse, a spark that turns out to, well, be just the opposite.
In Geoff Williams’s article, he points out that this isn’t something to take personally. Just as in dating (or job-hunting, I’d add), you’re going to meet potentials that don’t work out. That’s part of the process.
Anyway, it’s an interesting, encouraging, funny read, and I’d recommend anyone selling a home (or wishing to) to read this piece.
Caught this recent post on owner financing - a great way to get buyers’ attention these days - at the Bigger Pockets Blog and thought it worth mentioning over here. This is a clip:
If you absolutely must sell now and are not willing to slash your price, what do you do? What you need to do is stand out in a cluttered and crowded pool of homes for sale. One way to do that is to offer to finance the purchase. The current state of lending makes it difficult for many buyers to obtain acceptable financing. They may not be able to document all of their income or may have some blemishes on their credit reports. I’m not suggesting that you offer financing to anyone with a pulse, but there are plenty of people who would otherwise be credit worthy but may have had a legitimate problem that keeps them from qualifying.
To read the rest of the article, click here.
Apparently, the tough times in our economy aren’t just affecting residential real estate anymore. As expected, it’s spread into the commercial sector.
From The Washington Post:
PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute concluded in a recently report released that “U.S. commercial real estate faces its worst year since the wrenching 1991-1992 industry depression.”
Read the rest of the article here.
In the technologically advanced world that we’re currently living in, it’s not a surprise that multimedia resources are now coinciding with desperate home sellers. Recent statistics from the National Association of Realtors show that more than 85 percent of homebuyers are going online before physically looking at houses.
The idea of virtual tours began in the early 1990s, a time before the tech-savvy generation of today took full force. Now, if 85 percent of homebuyers are looking online first, it’s obvious that a technological advance has taken place.
Buy Owner is a successful company that uses the Internet to help customers sell and buy homes. Virtual tours allow homebuyers to virtually “see” the interior of a home without leaving the comfort of home! It’s incredible, really. With the state that the economy is currently in, everybody wants to save money.
As William Haney, Chief Information Officer at TourFactor.com stressed it in a recent article in the NY Daily News, by using a company that offers virtual tours, you can receive more potential customers all over the country, you can get the word out that your home is for sale and you can reach the newer generations that are tech-savvy. During this current market downturn, Haney finds this a smart option for home sellers trying to save money and sell their homes in a timely fashion.
To read more of Haney’s article, go here.
from Chris Ayres, of the LA Times, in his “Loving Your House Again. On how today’s homeowners may be feeling, what with the bad market and lowered home values:
“Chances are, you feel like impaling yourself on the three-pointed star on your real estate agent’s Mercedes. Before you do that, however, consider inflation. At its current unbowdlerized rate of 5%, inflation alone will devalue your million-dollar loan over the next decade to the “real money” equivalent of about $600,000, while at the same time causing your home to appreciate to $1.3 million (according to online inflation calculators).”
In other words, buying a house is still a good decision, all things considered.
Read the rest of the article here.
I recently came across this article, from Popular Mechanics of all places.
It makes sense: the writer approached the piece from the standpoint of a DIY project. Just as you would prepare, plan and work to build a step stool or repaint a room or refinish floors, you should prepare, plan, and work to sell your own home.
Nothing in the article is especially new, but I agree with all the points, and they’re worth reviewing. Too many FBSO sellers think their home will magically sell without any work whatsoever. Very, very rarely that may happen–in a sellers’ market, maybe. But right now is the time to put some elbow grease into the sale.
